Automatic compensating device for highway guard fence cables



AUTOMATIC COMPENSATING DEVICE FOR HIGHWAY GUARD FENCE CABLES Filed Dec. 26, 1930 JI/arnefj/ I Patented Oct. 20, 1931 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE HOLLAND G. WILLIAMS, OF BRANFORD, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR TO MALLEABLE IRON FITTINGS COMPANY, OF' BRANFORD, CONNECTICUT, A CORPORATION OF CON- NECTICUT AUTOMATIC COMPENSATING DEVICE FOR HIGHWAY GUARD FENCE CABLES Application filed December 26, 1930. Serial No. 504,907.

This invention relates to an automatic compensating device for highway guard fence cables, and has for its object to provide means which will automatically take care of the contraction and expansion of fence cables 1 due to changes of temperature.

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lar ed scale, of the compensating device.

imilar numerals of reference denote like parts in both figures of the drawings;

1 designates the posts, and 2, 3, the cables which are supported by the posts in any suitable manner.

thimble 6 Which is In highwayguard fences, at every two hundred or three hundred feet or there-.

abouts, it hasbeen customary to secure the cables to a suitable anchorage, the anchorage contacts at the ends, of the several sections crossing each other, so thatthere is no real gap in the continuity of the guard fence, this being a well known practice and requiring no explanation herein.

But the trouble has been that when the cables have contracted, in extreme cold weather, the posts will either be displaced or the anchorages have been disturbed to such a degree that when the cables expanded at a warmer temperature they became soslack as to be useless, and the object of the present invention is to remedy this defect in a very simple manner. I

4t is a rod secured to an anchor 5 which latter is usually'buried in the ground as 'shown, the rod extending upwardly therefrom and having assembled around it a perfectly free to move lengthwise of the rod.

To this thimble 6 are secured the'ends of the cables 2, 3, these ends being passed through suitable openings in the thimble and then secured to the main bodies of the cables by means of ordinary clamps 7 8.

The outer extremity of the rod 41 ed, as seenat 9, and a heavy coilspring 10 is threadprovide a ylelding element which will prevent any damage by this contraction.

When the cables tend. to become slack in hot weather the spring will act against the thimble and force the latter downwardly along the rod and thus take up the objectionable slack.

ltwill thus be seen that the structure just described automatically takes care of contraction and expansion of the cables.

W hat is claimed is 1. An anchoring device for fence cables comprising an anchored rod, a thimble loosely assembled around said rod the latter be ing threaded at its outer end, means for attaching'the fence cup loosely surrounding the rod, a coil spring surrounding the rod and confined between said cup and thimble, and a nut threadedon said rod against said cup whereby the ten sion of the spring is regulated.

2. An expansion and contraction compensating anchorage device for highway guard fence cables consisting of an anchorage rod, 'a coil spring around said rod and a thimble through which said rod loosely extends and to which the cables are secured, said spring being confined between said thimble and a tensionnut threaded on said rod, whereby "slack in the cables is taken up by the action hereto.

' HOLLAND G. WILLIAMS.

surrounds the rod and is confined between the thimble and the cup 11 loose around the rod,

cables to said thimble, a

ion 

